Blackhawks recover, rally for 5 straight goals to top Sharks

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Blackhawks rallied for five straight goals to defeat the San Jose Sharks 5-2 at United Center on Wednesday.

Louis Crevier scored twice, Connor Bedard had two assists, and Spencer Knight made 15 saves for the Blackhawks (29-39-14), who had lost nine of 10 (1-8-1) entering their final game of the season.

“We wanted to finish on a good note even though the last couple weeks have been hard,” Crevier said. “It doesn't erase what happened, but we showed some character in the third, so it's nice.”

Mario Ferraro and Michael Misa each scored, Kiefer Sherwood tallied two assists, and Yaroslav Askarov made 19 saves for the Sharks (38-35-8), who will finish their season at Winnipeg on Thursday.

“We’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky, whose team was eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Monday, said. “This one was a kick in the gut because we should know by now, to be honest with you. We’ve talked enough about momentum shifts in games, and when to simplify, and when to be a mature team and understand that we’ve controlled the game the first two periods, let’s go put zeroes in the third and we win a hockey game. Until we do that, we won’t make another step.”

Ferraro put the Sharks ahead 1-0 at 8:09 of the first period. He got the cross-ice feed from Sherwood on the rush and his wrist shot from the right face-off circle deflected in off Blackhawks defenseman Ethan Del Mastro’s skate.

Ilya Mikheyev was stopped on a penalty shot at 16:22, shortly after he got the Blackhawks' first shot on goal at 15:50.

Just 43 seconds into the second period, Tyler Toffoli looked to put the Sharks up 2-0 but the play was challenged and successfully overturned for offside.

Misa gave the Sharks a 2-0 lead with a power-play goal at 5:17. Misa worked the puck along the goal line and attempted to put it in in front, with the puck again deflecting off of Del Mastro and sliding over the goal line.

“I’ve been kind of waiting for it,” Misa, who scored for the first time in 15 games since March 15 against the Ottawa Senators, said. “It finally kind of went in there for me.

"It was definitely tough to not make the playoffs there. With the group we had, I thought we could definitely make it in there. Now that we didn’t, we can try to focus on these last two games. We’ve got one more left, so try to win it."

The Blackhawks five-goal rally started with Sam Rinzel, who brought the Blackhawks to within 2-1 at 19:30. Ryan Donato skated the puck down the center and lost it, with Rinzel jumping on it and putting it through Askarov's five-hole.

Crevier tied the game 2-2 at 3:51 of the third period. Bedard picked up the puck in the defensive zone and carried it up the ice, making a backhand pass to Crevier, who snapped it into the net.

Greene scored the go-ahead goal at 8:35 to give the Blackhawks their first lead of the night, 3-2. He took a backdoor pass from Del Mastro and scored from the left side of the crease.

“I actually thought we got way better after the first, to be honest with you,” Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill said. “There was probably more talk after the first than there was after the second. I thought we played much better in the second than we did in the first. In the first, we didn’t play very well at all. I thought the second was much better.”

Crevier scored again at 10:32 to make it 4-2. Tyler Bertuzzi got the puck off the boards and set Crevier up for the one-timer from the right point.

“I'm proud of myself, especially after last game where it was probably one of my worst games of the season,” Crevier said of a 5-1 loss against the Buffalo Sabres, in which he finished minus-1, on Monday. “It was a little more important to finish strong. You want to leave a good impression. What's the saying, you're only as good as your last game? It's nice to go into the summer having that feeling of scoring and stuff like that.”

Nick Lardis made it 5-2 at 14:44 after taking a pass in the slot from Bedard and dropping to one knee to put a wrist shot over Askarov stick side. With the assist, Bedard reached 45 helpers on the season, surpassing his career best of 44 set last season.

“There are ups and downs,” Bedard said. “I don’t think I was good enough, in my mind. There’s room for me to grow, but that being said, I haven’t scored in 10 (since March 26) and struggled the last bit, so maybe you’re a little more negative in the moment, but once you kind of break things down and what not, I think there were positives for myself and for my team, but you always want to get better.”

NOTES: Misa scored the 53rd goal by a teenager for the Sharks this season. Only four teams in the past 40 years have had as many goals from teenagers, including the 2006-07 Pittsburgh Penguins (67), 2016-17 Toronto Maple Leafs (59), 2003-04 Columbus Blue Jackets (55) and 1987-88 Los Angeles Kings (55). … Crevier became the second Blackhawks defenseman since 2012-13 to score two goals in a period, following Seth Jones (two goals in the second period on March 6, 2023). … Bedard, playing in his final game as a 20-year-old, recorded the 48th multipoint game of his career. That is the fourth most by an active player before age 21. The only skaters with as many are Sidney Crosby (91), Steven Stamkos (58) and Connor McDavid (55).